"Stay" by Jackson Browne-pointless remake?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by flashdaily, Aug 23, 2006.

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  1. flashdaily

    flashdaily Active Member Thread Starter

    What was Jackson Browne thinking when he did this remake, with it's "clever" new lyrics like "if the union don't mind"? And who belongs to that awful female (I think) voice that shares the song with Browne? It's about time somebody spoke out on this.
     
  2. magyar

    magyar New Member

    Location:
    Mpls, MN
    You're talking about the version from "Running On Empty"?

    I think the "new" lyrics make perfect sense in the context of the previous song, "The Load-Out".

    I've no idea who the female voice is though. She's a big improvement on the David Lindley solo right after her's though, don't you think?
     
  3. strick77

    strick77 Member

    Location:
    Montgomery AL
    I always thought it was David Lindley or somebody else (male) in the band.

    ....and I like the song.
     
  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    That's not a female singing! It's studio background singer David Lindley.

    I agree, it sounds pretty bad, but it fits tacked onto "The Load Out". The blended song is intended to be the last of the show, hence the opening lines of "The Load Out". It just doesn't work if they seperate "Stay", which was actually a single from the album.
     
  5. rstamberg

    rstamberg Senior Member

    Location:
    Riverside, CT
    Y'know, I once agreed with y'all but now I rather like Jackson Browne's version (in a weird way). Only took almost 30 years. (Sheesh ... *30* years ... Gawd.)
     
  6. John Cantrell

    John Cantrell Active Member

    Location:
    Outta here
    It fits. It sold. It's Jackson Browne's bloody Running On Empty album ;)
     
  7. musicalbeds

    musicalbeds Strange but not a stranger

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    I love the two together...wouldn't have it any other way.
     
  8. conniefrancis

    conniefrancis New Member

    Location:
    Brookfield, OH
    The actual female on that is Rosemary Butler.
     
  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I checked the credits in the liner notes and it says nothing about a female on the song.
     
  10. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I thought it blended perfectly. I think Jackson eludes to a rare vocal from David Lindley in the notes. Having herad David sing falsetto on other Jackson tapes, I'd say there's no doubt it's him.
     
  11. I agree. I never "got" this song. Also working in FM rock radio at the time, this song was played to bloody death and I burned out on it, quickly.

    Fortunately I haven't heard the song in many years. When I saw Jackson at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival a few years back, he and the band did not play that song.
     
  12. Another Side

    Another Side Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco
    At the time there was a live version that was played a lot on the radio with Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne, IIRC. I think the same voice was on that one, right?
     
  13. conniefrancis

    conniefrancis New Member

    Location:
    Brookfield, OH
    I haven't looked at the credit booklet in years, but Rosemary Butler is all over that record. The "fake female" voice is indeed David Lindley, but I'm sure the real female is Rosemary.
     
  14. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    Its Rosemary Butler. She also sings on Jackson's next album Hold Out. I always thought it was a light-hearted joke, particularly the Lindley verse. I also thought it was Jackson's way of showing he had a sense of humor despite all of the sad songs he usually wrote.
     
  15. bangsezmax

    bangsezmax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Durham, NC, USA
    Yeah, what's the point of a song that grooves like heck, sounds good, and becomes a classic in its own right?
    Precisely.
     
  16. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Jackson Browne is pointless, so the whole thread's automatically redundant? :D

    :ed:
     
  17. reechie

    reechie Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Okay, let's review a couple of things here:

    1. "Stay" was edited from a longer song on Running On Empty called "The Load Out/Stay." When you hear the entire song, dealing with the end of a concert, roadies breaking down the stage, and hitting the road to the next town, the tagged on "Stay" with its revised lyrics, is the encore. He's asking the audience to hang around a bit more because the band doesn't want to stop playing yet. In that context it all makes sense. The record company decision to release only the "Stay" segment of the song as a 45 confused matters.

    2. There are two different high voices singing that line at different times in the song. The first is an actual female vocal from Rosemary Butler. Listen, for crying out loud, it does sound like a woman singing. :rolleyes:

    The second time around, it's a male bandmember's voice singing in falsetto, ala Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, who also recorded the song.

    As for "It's time somebody spoke out about this", Why? What kind of free time do you have on your hands that you have time to worry about this?:wtf:
     
  18. Another Side

    Another Side Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Reechie, the Load Out was the flip side of the single. Also I think the singer is emulating Maurice Williams, who originally recorded the song.
     
  19. reechie

    reechie Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Understood, but for example's sake, I used the Four Seasons. More people are familiar with Frankie Valli's falsetto than Maurice and the Zodiacs.

    And I never had the original 45, so thanks for the info.
     
  20. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    That's the point I tried to make.

    Just because something sounds like a woman doesn't mean that it is. There are tons of guys who can sound like women. I was just listening to "Thighs High" by Tom Browne last night, and the guy singing on it sounds exactly like a woman, not a falsetto, a woman!

    The original was done by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. They had a huge hit with it in 1960.

    What free time do you have to read this thread and resopond to it?:rolleyes: Unusually cranky this morning, aren't we?
     
  21. reechie

    reechie Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Absolutely...That's what I do! :D
     
  22. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I worked an Oldies station where a consultant constantly tried to get us to add "Stay" to the playlist by Browne, and drop the Maurice Williams; we resisted because:
    a) we had enough of an older audience that wouldn't "buy" it (the consultant is even younger than I am), and
    b) it just doesn't have any -ANY!- reason to exist on the air without "The Load-Out". But, this would take the track into the "classic rock" mindset, and we weren't gonna go there (besides, a 9-minute track just doesn't fit into a top-40 drivetime schedule; it would end up getting bumped endlessly into other dayparts where it would get burned-out).

    The only reason that Browne's "Stay" (as a "single") made top-20, is because "The Load-Out" was its' b-side; if a top-40 station played it at the time because the competing AOR station was playing it, they would play "Stay" in drivetime by itself, and the whole shebang during less-cluttered dayparts...but when it did, BOTH sides would get credit for the airplay, goosing its' numbers up.

    Or so I am told.
     
  23. Ted Bell

    Ted Bell Forum Dentist

    That's from No Nukes and is credited as Jackson, Bruce, and The E Street Band with Rosemary Butler
     
  24. Another Side

    Another Side Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco
    :thumbsup:
     
  25. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Until recently, I had never heard a station play "Stay" without "The Load Out".
     
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